What Would Jimmy Do?

When I was about six years old, we got something new in our house. This amazing device allowed you to talk to people in other places — it was called a telephone. I mean, it was really called a telephone. If you were lucky enough to have one, you didn’t tell people you got a phone, you told them you got a telephone. You almost never hear the word telephone used anymore… there’s phone, cell phone, mobile phone, etc., but the word telephone is seldom used.

I got to wondering when telephone got shortened to just “phone.” After conducting my extensive research on the subject, I noticed that in older publications, the word telephone was shortened to ‘phone — the apostrophe used to mark where the beginning of the word had been omitted. Over some amount of time, someone obviously decided that phone (without the apostrophe) was its own word.

When I was a kid, we used words like telephone call, telephone line, telephone pole and telephone book. Today, if those things are mentioned at all, they’re phone call, phone line, phone book, etc. — the “tele” part seems to have just gone away. Of course, a lot of other abbreviations have become their own word in their own right, for example, facsimile spurned fax, microphone was shortened to mic and, especially in England, television is referred to as telly. Shortening seems fairly common, but it appears to be more common at the front of words than at the back.

Anyhow, I couldn’t determine exactly when the transition from telephone to ‘phone to just phone happened. I suspect that some people just started using the shortened version of telephone and it caught on and as for the apostrophe, the presence or absence of it in speech is meaningless anyway.
But I’m kind of happy that phone seems to have prevailed — can you imagine E.T. wanting to telephone home instead of just phone home? And how would you like to tote around an iTelephone instead of an iPhone?
— 30 —

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to Emily’s school for Grandparents Day. We obviously had a great time and are looking forward to it next year. I got to thinking about how everybody seem to have a “day,” and it occurred to me that if not for West Virginia, we grandparents might not have our day. Grandparents Day was “founded” by Marian McQuade of Oak Hills, West Virginia in 1973. I might also mention that Mothers Day was also “founded” in West Virginia.

When our friends learned we were moving to West Virginia, they all thought we were moving to the “wrong side of the tracks.”
There’s an old joke that the first toothbrush was invented in West Virginia because if it had been invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush. But the fact is, that West Virginia, like most places, is unique in its own way and lays claim to a number of “firsts.” Berkley Springs, just up the road from our house boasts the country’s first spa that was open to the public. And outdoor advertising more or less got its start when Mail Pouch tobacco ads were painted on barnes in Wheeling, West Virginia. One of the first publications for women, The Ladies’ Garland newspaper was published in Harper Ferry in 1824. The first routes for Rural Free Delivery (RFD) started in Jefferson County — the county we live in. Prior to RFD, people living in the country traveled to cities to get their mail, or paid someone for delivery.
One very important contribution to society from West Virginia is the Pepperoni Roll. It was invented by an Italian, Giuseppe Arigiro, who came to work in the mines in Clarksburg in 1920.
The first steamboat was launched by James Rumsey in the Potomac River here in Shepherdstown in 1787 — the town was named New Mecklensburg at that time.
The stone used for the Washington Monument was stone that was quarried near Hinton, WV.
West Virginia is considered the southernmost northern state and the northern most southern state, and add to that it is the only state to get its sovereignty by proclamation of the President of the United States.
So West Virginia may not be “almost Heaven” but it’s certainly not the “wrong side of the tracks.”
— 30 —

I’m not a huge (professional) baseball fan… Ever since the major league strike prevented the World Series from being played a number of years ago, I’ve been “down” on the major leagues. Of course, this year is different. Faithful readers of this blog will remember that the Cleveland Indians have been my favorite team since I was about 7 or 8 years old. If you care about why a kid from Oklahoma would choose the Cleveland Indians, you can search the archives of this blog to find the answer.

So my favorite team and not my favorite team, but one that I still wish well, the Chicago Cubs are taking the field tonight in Cleveland. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1908. The Indians have not won a World Series since 1948. (I remember the Indians win, I don’t remember the Cubs win.) Someone has to win — either the Cubs will win their first championship since 1908 or the Indians will win their first championship since 1948. There is no tie — it’s the only possible outcome.

The last time either team won a World Series people that have recently become eligible for Social Security weren’t even born! We could go on and on about things we have today that didn’t even exist the last time either team won the series, but I guess the point is, it’s been a really long time.

The Cubs last appeared in a World Series in 1945, but they lost to the Tigers in seven games. Supposedly a local bar owner brought a goat inside the ballpark and created The Curse of the Billy Goat that has haunted the Cubs since, starting with them losing the 1945 World Series. The Indians World Series victory drought is the second-longest in baseball, but at least it’s 40 years shorter than the longest — held by the Cubs. Combined, they have a championship drought of over 150 years.

So one of them will win — but — there’ll be a loser, too — that’s how it works. So one of these cities will have to continue to contend with some magic force working to keep them suffering.
One city on Lake Michigan and one on Lake Erie, playing for all the marbles. How can a series played on two Great Lakes not be a great series?
— 30 —

Last weekend while we were in Cleveland, John and Chris give us a bottle of wine. What makes this bottle unique is the label. It’s a Cleveland Indians label – their “club series.” To quote from the label, “In 1901, when the Indians franchise began in Cleveland, it set the tone for a team that embodies the hardworking, down-to-earth spirit of the city. Over a century later, with two World Series titles and five AL pennants, the Indians are proud to release this California Red Blend with notes of chocolate, roasted coffee bean and vanilla spice.”

So now that we know what the players do in the off-season, we can all sit back and enjoy another World Series title. And best of all, this year we’ll be celebrating with this special bottle of wine. The bottle gets opened when the Indians win the series — and if for some unfathomable reason they lose, the bottle gets opened…. Here’s to the second major championship for Cleveland this year.
— 30 —

Well, here I go again… I told myself that i wouldn’t mention politics or the election any more until at least mid-November. But… I watched the third debate last night, still of the opinion that it’s my civic duty to learn as much as possible about both candidates before I vote.
I honestly can’t say I learned anything new about either side, but I was a little disturbed that one candidate indicated that he might possibly not accept the outcome of the election based on the popular vote. I’ve heard the “this election’s rigged” banter for a while now, but trying to be generous, was willing to chalk it up to “campaigning.”

I’m certainly not an expert on the electoral system, but I don’t consider myself stupid, either. From what I know, I think it would be very difficult to “rig” a national election. I do not think any of the voting machines are connected to the Internet, or even to each other and machines and the voting process is under the control of various states and counties. It would seem to me that it would take a conspiracy of tremendous magnitude to affect the election.
I guess I do think it’s possible to mess with voter registration because one can register to vote via the Internet. But even if those data bases are “hacked,” I’m pretty sure there back-up procedures in place to prevent wide-scale voter fraud. I know that if you show up at the polls and for some reason your name is not on the registered list, you can still produce a voter registration card and vote and if worse comes to worse, you can vote a provisional ballot until the issue is resolved.

So I’m not terribly concerned about election fraud, I’m more concerned that someone may try to influence public opinion of a system that’s worked pretty well for 250 years or so.
Go vote — trust me, it’ll count!!
— 30 —

We took a trip to the North Coast, sometimes known as Cleveland, over the weekend. Been a while since we were there, so it was good to see a lot of people again.
We spent some time with Bobbie the Nun at Chardon and got a tour of pretty much the entire facility. By the time we left we knew how many laundry rooms, TV rooms, computer rooms, utility rooms and lounges were there and we met a lot of nuns — especially Slovak ones. And of course Bobbie sent presents home with us for everyone.
We also had a good visit with Margie and got to see her current residence. The place seems really nice and she appears to enjoy all the activities and the people there. And on top of all that, the food is good.
On Saturday night we went to dinner with a large part of the family — I don’t know what percentage of the family attended because no one really knows how big the family actually is. But we had a really good time and the Indians won a couple of games while we were there on their way to a sweep of the Blue Jays. No rain on the way there — or — on the way home… leaves were colorful…. traffic was reasonably light… what more could you ask for? Well, maybe a Browns victory?
— 30 —

This time of year you see all the pumpkins for sale and most are priced by the pound… it always reminds me of when our daughter, Kelly, was probably 4 or 5 years old. A friend had taken her to a pumpkin patch or a fall festival or something like that and she came home with a pumpkin that was almost as big as she was. When we asked her where she got it, she said she won it. When asked how, she explained that everyone was supposed to guess how many labels and she guessed the number of labels that was the closest, so she won it.
It took a long time, but we finally figured out that the contest was to guess how much the pumpkin weighed and the person who came the closest got the pumpkin. It turns out that the sign said, “Guess how many lbs. and win the pumpkin.” So Kelly came the closest. We tried to explain that lbs. wasn’t labels, but stood for pounds, but she looked at us like we were really stupid and pretty much told us we didn’t know what we were talking about. How stupid can you be if you think the abbreviation for pound is lb? Of course we gave up trying to convince a 4 or 5 year old, but I always wondered why we abbreviate pound that way.

If you look it up, you’ll find that supposedly lb is actually an abbreviation for the Latin word libra. But the problem with that, in my mind at least, is that libra in Latin originally meant “stone.” If you dig deeper, or as I like to say — do extensive research, lb is an abbreviation of the word libra, which could mean a pound, but libra itself is a shortened term of the full expression, libra pondo, which means “pound weight.” Pondo, by the way, is the origin of the English pound. So it seems to me that they cut off the wrong half of the expression when looking to abbreviate pound.

My extensive research also reminded me that Libra is also an astrological sign — the seventh sign of the zodiac. The name was given to a rather uninspiring constellation, with no particularly bright stars in it. It was thought to represent scales, or a balance, which more accurately describes the Latin term libra. That’s the reason it is often accompanied by the image of a pair of scales.

Another abbreviation of libra (£) is an ornate form of L with a cross-stroke (the way a medieval scribe marked an abbreviation.) This is also the symbol used for the English pound. The link between the the two senses of pound, weight and money, is that in England a thousand years ago a pound in money was equivalent to the value of a pound of silver.
It also occurs to me that we use the symbol “#” on our phones and refer to it as the pound sign or button — of course, we also use it to mean “number.”

Anyhow, I’ve decided that this will just remain a mystery to me… I just don’t get it — I’m with Kelly, it should mean labels. But I guess we’ll continue to buy our pumpkins by the lb.
— 30 —

Well, here it is Ten-Ten Day again. If you’ve read this blog over the years you know that it’s a day we always celebrate. Last year was a good year because Megan and Mike got married on Ten-Ten Day, but it was kind of a bummer because it’s the first time we didn’t have Chinese food on Ten-Ten Day.
Anyhow, happy anniversary to Mike and Meghan and happy Ten-Ten Day to everyone else.

Ten-Ten Day is mainly celebrated in Taiwan — but also by supporters of the original Republic of China who fled to Hong Kong and lots of Chinatowns in the United States. To back up a bit, at the end of World War II, the government of the Republic of China lost control of mainland China and relocated to Taiwan (in 1949) bringing with them more than one and a half million refugees. Even today, the relocation is still the source of political debate and international struggle across both side of the Taiwan Strait.

Ten-Ten Day is a national holiday (mostly in Taiwan) to commemorate the Chinese Revolution of October 10, 1911. The revolt marked the end of the Ching, or Qing, Dynasty that had been established in 1644 by the Manchus. The revolt led to the founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912.
When the Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949, they established a government for all of China on the island. In fact, from 1949 until 1971, Taiwan was recognized as “China” in the United Nations. Mainland China’s position on Taiwan is that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China and the People’s Republic of China is waiting for reunification of the island and the mainland. Taiwan continues to claim independence as a distinct State.

Since 1971, the United States (along with most other countries) has not recognized Taiwan and Taiwan does not maintain an embassy in the US. The island maintains contact with the United States through two unofficial instrumentalities — American Institues in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office. Taiwan is a member of the International Olympic Committee and sends its own team to the Olympic games, and issues globally recognized passports that allow its citizens to travel internationally. Taiwan continues to lobby for admission into the United Nations, but mainland China opposes admission, continuing to  claim Taiwan as its province.

But no matter — today Taiwanese are celebrating it as Taiwan’s birthday — and we are going to have Chinese food. Happy Birthday Taiwan!
— 30 —

Ok — enough on this texting topic already. Just a couple more points and I’ll put it to rest.
You know I’m not a big fan of texting, but I’m coming to accept it… that doesn’t mean a lot of things about it don’t still bother me.

It appears that as this “new” method of communication increases, it’s become a game of who can use the fewest textual characters possible and traditional voice-based methods of communication are diminishing.
I read that social networking is the world’s most popular online activity. I’d venture to guess that a very high percentage of all teens are members of at least one social network. Obviously the language used to communicate over these networks is significantly different that the language used in formal writing and face-to-face communication — but — I’m thinking, so is social etiquette. People are so entrenched in communication via “technology,” they have developed poor social skills in face-to-face settings. And to make it worse, young people, especially, are taking themselves out of environments that teach them to communicate face-to-face.
Most people of my generation were old enough when they began using mobile devices or the Internet that their social skills were already developed. That’s not the case with young people today.
A couple of days ago I mentioned a study that had determined that most people believed that if you were apologizing for something, it should be done in person, not via a text message. I think that’s true — tapping out “I’m sorry” on a keyboard and hitting “send” doesn’t convey any hurt or sadness that would be communicated through verbal or visual clues. It’s certainly easier for the person apologizing to deliver a difficult or uncomfortable message that way, but it also allows him or her to avoid vital emotions that should accompany the apology

Well anyhow, enough — texting is here to stay and the fact is most younger people don’t ever text me anyway — so it is what it is. Whenever I do get a text, I’ll just continue to wonder if that semi-colon is some kind of flirty wink or just bad punctuation….
— 30 —

For the past few years, we have participated at our church on occasion by helping the priest distribute Communion. Now that you’ve gasped, and re-read the sentence, we can get on with the subject of this blog. No, it really has nothing to do with the fact that we distribute communion. But what I’ve noticed is that when people approach to receive communion, a very high percentage don’t make eye contact — any eye contact.

Of course this got me to thinking about eye contact and a bit about just eyes. After my usual extensive research on the subject kicked in, I discovered some interesting “facts” about eye contact…
Females look more at people they are talking to than do males.
We increase eye contact when dealing with people we like, admire, or who have power over us.
We judge relationships by the amount of eye contact exchanged — the greater the eye contact, the closer the relationship.
Eye contact produces a powerful, subconscious sense of connection that extends even to drawn or photographed eyes.
We reduce eye contact when we are talking about something shameful or embarrassing, when we are sad or depressed, and when we are accessing internal thoughts or emotions.
We avoid eye contact in elevators, subways, crowded buses or trains (we face the door of the elevator or stare at our phones, because it helps us manage the insecurity of having our personal space invaded)
I read that the biggest body language myth concerning liars is that they avoid eye contact. It’s true that some liars (generally, children) find it difficult to lie while looking directly at you, but many accomplished liars actually overcompensate to “prove” that they are not lying by making too much eye contact and holding it too long.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I think that today a lot (most?) people spend most of their time looking into electronic gadgets and eye to eye contact just makes them uncomfortable.
Anyhow, eyes are a means of communication and they communicate more than you think — a lot of what they communicate you can’t control. You can control you facial expressions, but not your eyes.

While doing my extensive research, I ran across an interesting article that indicated that the color of ones eyes is an important metric in determining character. A deep blue color means that the individual is a highly sexed yet gentle and sensitive being. Light blue eyes indicates a person is likely to enjoy flirting with the opposite sex. Dark green eyes are highly energized and also very inventive – both in practical and personal affairs. Chocolate brown eyes indicate some of the genetic traits of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern races and indicate an extremely passionate character who loves social life and meeting many different people. Grey eyes reveal a high degree of intelligence and imagination but passion may be less pronounced. Black eyes are very rare — they reveal a somewhat strong natured individual that doesn’t always present their case with what you’d call finesse. I guess if people are wearing colored contact lenses, all bets are off.

It’s a shame we don’t make eye contact so much anymore, because eyes are so much a part of our life, and our vocabulary… we hear about the eye of the storm and a bird’s eye view or a gleam in the eye. I used to catch a late flight from California called the red eye to get home, often with bloodshot eyes, to the apple of my eye, Claire. There’s a song called can’t take my eyes off you that probably refers to someone that’s easy on the eye. A roving eye will get you in trouble, especially if you’re in the public eye. I used to think that my parents had eyes in the back of their heads and when I went to school, kids that wore glasses were referred to as four eyes and good looking girls were eye candy.

Buddha has a lot of quotes, but one that seems to fit here is, “He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”
I don’t know about you, but this discussion has been a real eye-opener for me…
— 30 —